lindsey brittain collins

LINDSEY BRITTAIN COLLINS

ARTIST STATEMENT

Inspired by contemporary and historical events, memory, and personal experience, I make architectural abstractions that document my encounters with built environments. My work focuses on sharing untold histories and examining the role architecture plays in shaping social and economic structures. Drawing on my academic background in business, economics, and sociology, I examine the topics in my work through a critical lens. My process is heavily research-based while simultaneously spontaneous. I begin each piece by documenting a built environment through photography, historical and archival research, visual analysis, and mapping. I then let the research and documentation lead me to inspiration, informing the composition, and guiding my hand throughout the mark-making process. Through painting, collage, sculpture, and installation, I record moments in time that narrate my own experiences within urban spaces. I place particular importance on my choice of medium, often incorporating building materials, natural materials, and found objects, tying the work back to the built environment, and examining the material’s loaded history and cultural associations. I create alternate universes that live somewhere between the real and imagined — the past, the present, and the future.

BIOGRAPHY

Lindsey Brittain Collins is a New York-based visual artist working in painting, collage, sculpture, and installation. She creates architectural abstractions that narrate her encounters with built environments and urban spaces. Inspired by contemporary and historical events, memory, and personal experiences, her work focuses on sharing untold stories and examining the role architecture plays in shaping social and economic structures. Drawing on her academic background in business, economics, and sociology, she examines the topics in her work through a critical lens.

Lindsey received her MFA from Columbia University in 2021. She received her B.A. in Economics and Sociology from the University of Virginia and her MBA from Columbia Business School. In 2018 she was appointed by the Governor to the Art & Architectural Review Board for the state of Virginia. She has been an artist-in-residence at the Vermont Studio Center and was the recipient of the 2019 Arena Stage Emerging Leader in the Arts Award. Currently, Brittain Collins is an artist-in-residence at the World Trade Center through Silver Art Projects where this year’s program focus is on social justice and activism.

CURRICULUM VITAE

Education

2021 M.F.A. Columbia University School of the Arts

2014 M.B.A. Columbia Business School

2006 B.A. The University of Virginia

Exhibitions

2021 The Meeting Point Vol. 2, Curated by Danny Baez, Meeting Point Gallery, New York, NY

Columbia MFA Thesis Exhibition, Curated by Amy Sadao, Lenfest Center for the Arts, New York, NY

The (Better Late Than Never) Summer Show, Curated by Owen Duffy, 81 Essex, New York, NY

Operation Varsity Blue(s), Curated by Charles Moore, Allouche Gallery, New York, NY

Response To: We Fight to Build A Free World, The Jewish Museum, New York, NY

Is it OK to Laugh? Black Sarcasm and the Aestheticizing of Violence Within Contemporary Music

Videos, Wallach Art Gallery, New York, NY

First Year Exhibition, curated by Carmen Hermo, Wallach Art Gallery, New York, NY

2018 Advanced Painting Intensive Exhibition, LeRoy Neiman Gallery, New York, NY

Unframed, Willow Street Gallery, Washington, DC

2017 For the Record, George Washington University Museum, Washington, DC

No Name in the Street, Con Artist Gallery, New York, NY (Solo Exhibition)

The Art of Interpretation, Pepco Edison Gallery, Washington, DC

Residencies

2021. Silver Art Projects, World Trade Center, New York, NY

2018 Columbia University Advanced Painting Intensive, New York, NY

2018 Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT

Awards/Appointments

2019 Arena Stage Emerging Leader in the Arts Award, Washington, DC

2018 Virginia Art & Architectural Review Board – Appointed by Governor Northam

Publications

2021 “One Fine Day”, Line Inside, Tiger Strikes Asteroid, No. 019, March 2021. 5- 8

Selected Press & Bibliography

2021 Charles Moore, “ Her Space Odyssey”, Juxtapoz Magazine, Winter 2022, 116-123

Abigail Glasgow, “Art Noir Reclaims the Black History of New York’s Meatpacking District”,

Cultured Magazine, August 2021

Theresa Vargas, “At Nannie’s Grave, a Mysterious Visitor”, Washington Post, April 18, 2021. C1

Brittany Nguyen, “Uncovering the Heritage Silhouette: Lindsey Brittain”, Columbia University

School of the Arts News, April 2021

Marcus Jamison, “Practice and Process”, Wallach Art Gallery Interviews, March 2021